Crime Stoppers offering reward in murder case of Kelvin Wheeler Jr.

DETROIT (FOX 2) - A bond between father and son was shattered when 34-year-old Kelvin Wheeler Jr. was shot to death while stopped at a red light on Detroit's west side this summer. 

It happened July 8 at Livernois and Ewald Circle, which is near Oakman Boulevard. He had just left his father's house.

"My son was a life changer. Anybody that he could help, that's exactly what he would do," Kelvin Wheeler Sr. said Tuesday at a Crime Stoppers press conference. A $5,000 reward is being offered for information that leads to an arrest in the case. 

Kelvin Jr. was the father of an 8-year-old boy, a youth minister, a mentor and the Dean of Students at Triumph Middle School in Harper Woods. The community has rallied around his family from the start.

"He was making a difference in the community. His life mattered. You know we talk about lives matter, his life mattered," said Glenn Jackson, a fraternity brother and friend.

He talked to Kelvin Jr. on the phone a half-hour before the shooting, now remembering the last sermon he heard Pastor Wheeler give. It was about speaking up.

"Showing up is what he said, and speak up. So it's time for somebody to show up and time for somebody to speak up and take this person, and I'll say - this devil - off the street before he does this to somebody else," Jackson said.

Kelvin's mother also pleaded for the killer to turn himself in.

"I pray to God touch your heart that you may see the sadness in my face and that you turn yourself in, that you can rest better at night," Rose Anderson said.

It's believed the suspect got away in an older model gray sedan and went northbound on Livernois.

The family is convinced someone knows something.

"Anybody knows something, please say something. We need these people in jail because I'll tell you what. If they did this to my son just think of what they'll do to one of your kids, one of your relatives. There ain't a heart in their body, there can't be not when you do somebody like that," Kelvin Sr. said.

If you have information about what happened, call Crime Stoppers at 1-800-SPEAK-UP. You will remain anonymous.